ChatGPT Enterprise Sends OpenAI Revenue Past $1B. Although based on the GPT-4 model like ChatGPT Plus, the Enterprise edition includes priority access for faster performance. Open AI had a $23 M of revenue and a $540 M loss last year. With the launch of its new enterprise offering, it’s on track to earn $1 Billion this year. That has to be some kind of a record.
AI21 Labs closes $155 million in Series C. The three-year-old Tel-Aviv company provides text-based generative AI services for enterprises. Investors include Walden Catalyst, Pitango, SCB10X, b2venture, Samsung Next, and Amnon Shashua, the founder of Intel-owned Mobileye and an AI21 Labs co-founder. Google and Nvidia also participated. The new funding brings the company’s total capital raised to $283M at a valuation of $1.4 billion.
Nvidia, beware! IBM has a new analog AI chip that could give the H100 a run for its money. Techradar says Nvidia shouldn’t get too comfy.
Magic Leap 1’s “end of life” date will be December 31, 2024. Magic Leap 1 is no longer available for purchase but will continue to be supported through December 31, 2024. Maybe there are ten thousand of these out in the wild. Installed software should continue to work but if it doesn’t, you’re on your own.
VRChat Mobile Is Now Available In Alpha On Android. And so is Meta Horizons. You have to be cross platform, you have to be on mobile. Horizon mobile so far only supports worlds that specifically add support for mobile devices. RecRoom exploded when it was released on game consoles and mobile two years ago.
“INVASION” is a fake trailer from Mehmet Aldış, a 35-year-old Turkish Cypriot with a passion for photography. In the past year, he’s been focused on GenAI. Aldis used the Midjoruney text-to-image tool to create each shot, and then turned these high-resolution images into 3-second videos using Pikalabs. The video was upscaled to 4K resolution using Topaz AI. It took Aldis a total of 1.5 weeks to produce it.
FIVARS 9th Annual VR Festival Is Back and Available Online through October 3rd. FIVARS’ online theater enables users to view 360 films with or without a headset, attend talks, network, and enjoy live virtual performances. There will be live events in Toronto Sept 15-19 at Studio idFK gallery, in the Queen St. W arts district. Selected works include “The Carrier,” a narrative experienced from a baby’s viewpoint; “Night Creatures,” which features stop-motion fruit bats attending film festivals; and “Gumball Dreams,” the VR Theater piece that’s at the Venice Film Festival right now. “FIVARS is more than a festival,” says festival director Keram Maliki-Sanche. “It’s a unique platform for groundbreaking storytelling in the age of spatial computing.”
VR Pioneer Jeremy Bailenson: VR Is More Tool Than Toy (ZDNet)
Two Ted Talks To Expand Your Mind
This Week in XR is also a podcast hosted by Paramount’s Futurist Ted Schilowitz, Magic Leap founder Rony Abovitz, and Charlie Fink, the author of this weekly column. You can find it on podcasting platforms Spotify, iTunes, and YouTube. Watch the latest episode below.
Charlie Fink is an author and futurist focused on spatial computing. See his books here. Spatial Beats contains insights and inputs from Fink’s collaborators including Paramount Pictures futurist Ted Shilowitz.